Ps. 48.14 (Zion: a vision of everlasting)

“For this is God – our God / eternal / and everlasting; - he will guide us / eternally.” Here, at the conclusion to the psalm, do the citizens come to an analogous vision of Zion as the kings potentially had—that Zion truly represents God. Perhaps we have repeated too often—but it becomes the emblem and manifestation of God’s covenant. We see this in the concluding lines with “this is God, our God, eternal and everlasting”. The psalm has emphasized the fact that Zion is unshakable, that it participates within and displays the same ‘everlasting’ quality that is God’s alone. In addition, it does this by and through “our God”, the phrase of covenantal relationship between God and Israel (“you will be my people, and I will be your God”). Zion, therefore, shimmers in this covnenantal assurance; simply by looking at Zion, they are concretely assured that “God will guide us eternally”. It is a profoundly moving and important insight into the nature of Zion and her role. And it represents the antithesis of the king’s vision: for them, Zion was the force of destruction and scattering; their dethronement. For Zion’s citizens, by contrast, the vision of her engenders assurance “eternally”. For one, Zion is curse; for the other, she is blessing on par with that assured the people upon their entrance into the promised land (an enduring, generational blessing in perpetuity and safety). Lastly, it is utmost importance that we keep in mind that this vision of Zion emerges from a liturgical context—a liturgical ‘walking around’ Zion at which time the eyes of the congregants lovingly caress the structure of Zion. It is in that loving, liturgical action that this assurance is most fully seen; it is, in other words, in liturgy that the sacrament of Zion is most fully participated within.